Page 15 of Soros
Nerix told us telepathically that he didn’t care for her attitude, but his body language already said as much.
Lios answered her, “We appreciate you showing up on such short notice. It is our hope that we can work together to quickly eliminate the threat to your society and planet.” Lios continued to inform them about our suspicion that Ko’roz might be hiding on Earth. “We’re confident that while he was on Tandaquon, he altered his identity and potentially his looks.”
“Then how are we supposed to find him if you don’t even know what he looks like?” the woman said with deep lines around her mouth and between her eyebrows. “And what makes this alien so dangerous compared to the others who have been granted a permit to work here?”
We all stared at her while debating telepathically if she could really be this dumb.
“We’ll assume you said that because you have no idea what Malbreeans are capable of,” I said in a courteous tone.
“From what you have presented here tonight, I see a psychopath who was a successful politician on a different planet. He doesn’t seem to have the profile of a serial killer who is hunting his next prey. If he acts out and doesn’t follow our laws, we’ll find him and deal with him like we do with everyone else.”
Nerix looked up at the ceiling as if silently asking the higher powers for strength to not explode. Lios gave me a nod, silently gesturing to me that I should explain.
Getting up from my chair, I moved around the table at a slow pace while watching the three humans.
“Do you know why Earth is a protected planet?”
“Yes,” the man closest to me answered in a dark voice while touching his beard. His stomach was large and made it impossible for him to sit close to the table. “Because we don’t have the means to protect ourselves against alien warfare. Technologically we’re at a little disadvantage for now.”
“That’s an extreme understatement,” I said. “Right now, there’s a war going on in the Blitton Belt where the Malbreeans are colonizing and enslaving the local population to extract their resources. Malbreeans have no empathy and are focused only on profit. If Ko’roz is allowed to settle on Earth it will be like a weed in your beautiful garden. At first it won’t matter much because it’s just one plant. But how long do you think it will take before he invites his friends and they spread out their roots, suffocating what was here before their arrival? Someone like Ko’roz is superior to you humans in any way you can imagine. He’s stronger, smarter, and more ruthless. If you donothing,he’ll go for power by infiltrating your monetary and political system. Before you know it, Earth will be another colony for the Malbreeans and you and your family and friends will be their slaves.”
The humans exchanged worried glances.
“But isn’t the Alien Federation supposed to prevent that from happening?” The last time I had been on Earth, the man who just asked the question had been a high-ranking member of the military and a close advisor to the President of this country. I remembered him from my time teaching about the different races of aliens. It made sense that as he had joined the Congress, he had been handpicked for the alien committee.
Nerix couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “What do you think this is? We’ve chased Ko’roz through galaxies and lost two colleagues that he killed. He’s currently the most wanted criminal in the Federation and bounty hunters are looking for him throughout the galaxies. None of the bounty hunters can come here though and that’s why you humans have to help find him. When you do, we’ll deal with him and bring him back to be prosecuted for the interstellar crimes he has committed.”
When Nerix stopped talking, Lios took over. “We’re trying to track Ko’roz through the funds which he’s undoubtedly planning to channel to Earth illegally. Luckily, we have a very gifted Thaddoinian on our team who is an expert at extracting that kind of information.”
“Good.” The man with the large waist held up a hand to the woman who was just about to speak. “We’ll make sure that whatever photos and information you can give us is forwarded to our police and Interpol. Fingerprints and DNA samples will be helpful too.”
“We can’t give you a DNA sample,” I said firmly. “It would reveal that Ko’roz isn’t human. But fingerprints and images of what he looks like should be possible. We don’t know what name he is going under now.”
“Whatever support you need to find him, we’ll give you. Here…” The man with the mustache pushed three mobile phones across the table. “You’ll need these for us to get in contact with you and vice versa. I’ve programmed three numbers into them. Call any of those numbers and we’ll respond. Use the word Federation so we know it’s you.”
“Don’t forget that you must charge the phones when they run flat on batteries or they won’t work,” the woman pointed out.
Nerix, who hadn’t said a single thing during the meeting, took the phones and looked at the older woman when she spoke again.
“To sum up the meeting, you’ve warned us that a dangerous alien might have arrived at our planet and that he could be hiding in our city. We appreciate your warning and will do everything we can to catch this Ko’roz and hand him over to you.”
“No human will be able to arrest him since he knows mind-clouding. You will have to let us do that,” Lios warned them as we all got up from the table.
On my way out, I turned and said, “Pay attention to any outbreaks of strange diseases. As far as we know, Ko’roz didn’t go through normal medical procedures.”
“Did you?” the woman asked and wrinkled her nose at Nerix.
He was clearly provoked and took a step closer to her, giving her a challenging stare. “Why are you on that committee when you clearly hate anyone non-human?”
She raised her chin. “I’m on the committee to make sure you stay in space and leave us alone.”
Captain Lios addressed Nerix telepathically. “Be patient. She’s operating out of fear, and you can’t blame her. They are limited in their knowledge and we’re not here to charm her into liking us.”
Moving past the woman, Nerix kept quiet but the two scowled at each other and once we were back in the car, he let out a big sigh. “I hate being judged by people I’m trying to help. That ungrateful woman made me want to throw my hands up and tell her to deal with the situation herself.”
“Which is why it’s a good thing that I’m the captain and not you,” Lios said and calmly looked out the window. “You need to work on your temper.”
Nerix blocked the mental connection, and I took his example and closed it down as well. I welcomed a bit of quiet time while driving through the streets of New York. My gut told me that the tension between Nerix and that congresswoman was nothing but a mild breeze compared to the tornado of a fight that was brewing between Tania and me. Now that we were off the spaceship, it was time to face her head on.
